- [Instructor] Hello, everyone, and welcome
to this Getting Started tutorial
for Topology Optimization Using Ansys Discovery.
Let's get started.
If this is your first time using Discovery,
please be sure to review all the slides
on the Welcome screen,
as there is a lot of great information
that'll help you get acclimated with using the tool.
Once you've navigated to the end,
you can simply click Open Homepage
or click the in the top right corner
of the Welcome screen window.
From here, we need to import our geometry,
and to do so, we can navigate up to Browse,
select the dropdown arrow,
and choose Open Geometry File.
From here, let's select the automotive bracket housing
and choose Open.
By default, your geometry will load up
into the explore mode,
which is the mode we need to be in
to access our topology optimization simulation capabilities.
Now that the geometry's been imported,
we can begin to set up our topology optimization simulation.
But first, let's go ahead
and review our informational message.
When importing large assemblies composed of many components,
we suppress all objects on import for physics.
So it's important for you to include the objects
that you need to simulate on in your simulation.
So to do so, you can navigate up to our geometry tree
up here on the left,
and you can see that these objects
have the suppression icon located next to them.
This is the red circle with a line through it.
And to activate them, you can simply click this object here.
And you'll notice it turns to a green crosshair.
The secondary way to do so
is you can left-click on an object,
then you can right-click and say Include in Simulation
to select a specific body,
or you could say Include All in Simulation.
Or the third way is to use our quick scope tool
which is available on our ribbon
in the simulation tab on the far left side.
So once I've clicked this, you'll notice
that all of the objects are grayed out.
Indicating that none of them are included
in the physics simulation.
So to activate them individually,
we can select this rear plate, this center bracket,
which we'll be optimizing.
We'll also select the oil filter
as well as this retaining strap.
From here, we can have Discovery automatically hide
all of our suppress objects by navigating to the right side
of our Heads-Up Display, selecting the double arrows
and clicking hide excluded bodies at the very bottom.
Now, if I hit escape, you'll notice
that all of my hardware is now hidden and suppressed.
So from here, we can begin to set up
our static structural simulation.
So let's go ahead and rotate to our object
to the rear where we can select this rear backing plate
in which we want to apply a support.
You can apply a boundary condition using the ribbon commands
where you can select this dropdown
and choose a variety of different conditions.
Or you can use our hex
which clicking on it, exposes our halo.
And in this case,
we can go up to our structural cogwheel here
indicating our structural conditions
and we can choose a fixed support.
So to apply the support, we can hit enter on our keyboard
or simply click this check mark.
Once we've done so, you'll notice down here
at the bottom that our simulation information display
now has a structural cogwheel
indicating that we are running a structural analysis.
That is because in Discovery,
we are running our optimizations
purely on the structural domain.
Now, let's go ahead and determine the loading
in which this center white bracket here
will be optimized.
Now to close our Heads-Up Display
just hit Escape a few times.
Now, the method in which we are going
to be loading the center white bracket
is going to be due to the gravitational loading
of this oil filter.
So to a apply this,
you simply can navigate over to the left side
of our screen, where we can see our physics tree
where you can see the gravity condition.
You'll notice that it is included in the tree
but if hovering over, it shows that it is excluded
because we have the suppression icon turned on next to it.
Now, if we want to activate this
so the gravity or the self-weight
of this oil filter will load up this bracket,
we can simply click this object here, turning it green
indicating that gravity is participating in our simulation.
And you can see here now, if I hover over this,
that the arrow is pointing downwards
in the negative Z direction.
So this is indicating that gravity is set up properly.
Now to make things a little bit easier to follow,
I'm gonna go ahead and rename our simulation one
to Z gravity, just so I know as the user,
which simulation is going to be loading in which direction.
So simply, I can click simulation one
and I can just hit Z and rename it Gravity.
Just hitting enter to confirm.
Now, in many structural applications,
specifically during topology optimization
you're gonna have a wide variety
of load cases to consider for your optimized geometry.
So it's very easy to set up multiple load cases
here in Discovery.
All you need to do is simply click the arrow
above our simulation information display
where you can click New or Duplicate our simulation.
So in this case, I just wanna duplicate it.
So just for the sake of example here,
I wanna create my gravitational loading
in the negative X direction.
But first, let's go ahead down here
to the bottom where we can select Z gravity copy
indicating that we duplicated our first one.
And let's just go ahead and make this negative X gravity.
This is just a little bit of bookkeeping
to make things a bit easier.
Now, as a user, we need to indicate the gravity
is going to be going in the negative X direction
or this can simply be considered
as a gravitational load or an acceleration load.
So I can go ahead over here.
You can see, I just clicked this three dots,
which indicates a variety of directions
in which I can apply this gravity load.
So in this case, let's choose negative X.
Or if I wanted to enter specific values for acceleration,
I could double click
where I could enter values here as well.
But in this case, let's ahead and leave this as negative X.
So let's hit Escape two times
to get out of our Heads-Up Display.
Now let's go ahead and scope our topology optimization
to the static structural simulations in which we've created.
So I think it's important.
It's not necessarily required,
but I always like to have my typology optimization
on my first simulation.
So to do so, all you need to do
as I mentioned before is just click on this double arrow
where you can access your other simulations
and select the Z gravity.
So once we're back to this initial simulation,
we can activate topology optimization
by selecting it up here in the ribbon.
So simply clicking this, we'll do a few things here.
So on the left side of our screen here,
let's take a look at our tree.
We can see now we have an optimization object
and a protected depth.
We also have a variety of pink areas all over our parts
and let's go ahead and review them.
So these protected depth here is,
are the areas on your geometry that will be protected
from removal during the topology optimization simulation.
So for instance what you see here
are areas that have contacts as well as supports and forces.
So these are all of our physics boundary conditions.
But you can see here that it's applying
to all of my different objects here.
But I only want to optimize this center bracket
in our optimization.
So to do so, we can select this icon here,
select our center bracket, and then click the check mark.
And you'll notice now that all of our protected regions
are only focused on the center body
which can be seen related to our contacts,
you can see how they're relating to those areas
as well as we have our fixed support on the rear.
But this is not indicating a protection region
because we're only optimizing this center body.
Now, once we have this done,
we have our typology optimization Heads-Up Display open.
We have the opportunity to go ahead and control
a few different objects here.
Let's start with at the left side.
But on the left side here,
we can control the objective of the optimization.
As you can see, we have a variety of different options.
For instance, the top one here is maximized stiffness
which is what we're gonna be using in this application
'cause we want to make this part as stiff as possible
based on the loading conditions we supplied.
But we do have some other options here.
If you have any other constraints
in your application, may be tied to noise vibration
and harshness or some other modal requirements.
But for this application, let's just go ahead
and leave this as a maximize stiffness.
Now on the right side of our Heads-Up Display,
this is where we can control a little bit more
about the topology of the geometry that is created.
Specifically, we have the opportunity to go ahead
and include simulations.
So this allows us to select other simulations
to apply the load cases here that are gonna be considered
for the optimization.
So let's go ahead and check this negative X gravity
and you can see here, it's now blue
which is an indication that it is selective
and is gonna be contributing to the optimization.
Now, the other components in which we can activate here
are gonna be our manufacturing constraints.
Now to activate this,
you can simply click this manufacturing constraints object
where it's going to open up
a list of our manufacturing constraints.
Now to activate any of these,
you can simply click on them and you'll notice
that they get added into our physics tree here on the left.
And so this allows us to go ahead
and edit those values directly in our ribbon
without having to or excuse me, in our tree
without having to open our Heads-Up Display.
Maximum thickness pool direction
and table direction are all important
for setting up your simulation constraints
so that you can produce a part that's manufactureable
per your industry.
Now in some industries, additive manufacturing
is an acceptable solution, but other industries,
it might be a bit too cost prohibitive.
So we've included these manufacturing constraints
to help you navigate the optimization of your part
so that you can get a part that's manufactureable
and cost effective.
Max thickness is great for injection molding applications
'cause it controls the maximum thickness of features.
So if your injection molding parts, you wanna make sure
that they cure relatively at the same pace.
So maximum thickness is a great object to have.
Pull direction can be a bidirectional
or a single directional pull.
So you can see it indicates arrows
once I go ahead and add them.
So this will control the directionality
of the shapes that are created or topology.
So maybe if you're doing a case where you have a molded part
and you want the mold to open a specific direction,
this is a great way to do so.
And then the last two here are overhang protections.
This is great for topology optimization
for additive manufacturing.
And then we have this table direction here.
And so the table direction specifies the orientation
of your part for three access milling.
So you can see here that it would indicate
that I'm milling from my Z direction
but maybe if I wanted to make this part,
I would want it in the negative Y direction here.
But for this application,
let's just go ahead and leave our defaults.
And we're not gonna add any manufacturing constraints.
So let's hit escape a few times.
Now, the last things I wanna cover here
are controlling our protected depth.
So like mentioned before, these are areas that are tied
to physics conditions, whether they be loading
or contacts or supports.
And you'll notice that they have a certain amount
of volume supplied to them
or a thickness offset from those mating faces.
And you can control the size of this pink region
by changing this protect the depth value.
So you'll notice here if I chain change it to 20,
it gets much larger.
And if I bump it down to one millimeter,
it gets much, much smaller.
So let's just leave this as one millimeter.
Now in some applications, it's important to preserve
certain features of the original geometry
maybe for connection purposes or for some other reason,
but they aren't explicitly tied
to a specific physics condition.
So we have the opportunity here in Discovery
to go ahead and create our own protected regions
regardless of the physics conditions in that area.
So simply, if you wanna protect a region,
let's just say this top face, you can select a dropdown
and our topology optimization object up here
in our simulation tab, up in the ribbon,
and you can choose this Protected Depth.
From here, let's go ahead and just select this top face
for the sake of example.
And let's put in a value of five millimeters.
So as soon as I enter that value and hit end on my keyboard,
you'll notice if I zoom in
that we have a protected region at the top of our part.
So we can quickly review this where we have
a protected region at all of our contact intersections
as well as one up here on the top.
But like I mentioned a little bit earlier,
let's just go ahead and run with a lot of defaults here
just to see some organic shapes.
So let's just go ahead right-click on the object in our tree
and click delete.
I'm just gonna hit H on my keyboard
to get back to the home view because at this point,
I'm ready to solve my topology optimization simulation.
And to do so, we can navigate
down to the bottom right corner of our screen
into our results arc, where we can click the solve icon.
We'll check back here shortly
after this topology optimization simulation has completed.
Now that this simulation is finished,
we can begin to do a bit of post-processing
on this optimized structure.
So you notice here, if we take a look at this geometry,
a significant amount of material was removed.
So if we take a look at our tree here really quick,
you'll notice that the optimization says 60%.
Indicating that we took off 60% of the mass of this part
or the volume.
So if you ever wanted to change this,
please feel free to go ahead and change this
specific to your application.
So once we've created the contour of our part,
it's important to create an actionable CAD file
that which we can work on.
So to do so, you can navigate down
to the bottom right corner of your screen,
where you can see your results arc.
And I'd like to pause my topology optimization simulation
before I do so.
And you can select this add optimized body to model button.
And so once I do so, it's gonna create a faceted geometry.
So this faceted geometry is an STL file
which is kind of the basis
of topology optimization programs here.
So this is something you often send to your slicer,
that which you can create a G code on,
but it might be a little bit challenging
to work with from an original CAD perspective.
So we have a variety of other options to help you out
with that process here in Discovery.
So let's go ahead and turn off our contours
by selecting this object here in our results arc
so that we can better visualize
our topology optimization object.
So let's actually go ahead and left-click
to select this object, right-click and say, Hide Others.
So this gives us a better view
of the object that was created.
So you can see here now, it's a pretty blocky representation
of the original geometry
or the organic shape that was created
from our topology optimization simulation.
So we have a couple options here to help clean this up.
So let's go ahead over to our tree here
on the top left corner
where we can see we have a faceted geometry
that was added to our domain.
So I can simply select this object,
right-click where I have a variety of other objects here
that I can choose to do a of different operations.
So the first one here is create validation simulation.
So if you ever would like to go ahead
and create a simulation to maybe better understand
these stresses or strains or deformations in the part,
you can simply click this button here
to create a new simulation on your optimized structure
so you can better understand it.
We have this opportunity here to smooth out the facets
to get back to more organic shape.
And plus, we have the opportunity here to Convert to Solid.
So this is a really nice way to go ahead
and convert it into a BREP
or a boundary representation CAD
that is much more actionable in your native CAD format.
And when we do this conversion to solid,
we're making sure to preserve
your original boundary condition faces
or contacts locations here as well.
So just for example here, I'm gonna go ahead
and smooth these out and we can go ahead and take a look
at the difference once this is completed here.
Now that our smoothing operation has finished,
we can review all the different objects
that are presented here.
On the left side, we have our original design,
this very blocky bracket,
traditional subtractive manufacturing bracket.
Probably way over designed.
In the middle, we have our original faceted geometry
which is optimized at a 60% mass reduction.
You can see here in a tree
with respect to this original design.
And the last one here is the smoothing operation
after we optimized this structure.
So it's very important to make sure you smooth out
your faceted geometries
after you add the optimized body to model
to make sure that you can accurately capture
all the organic features of this optimized structure.
Thank you for watching this
Getting Started tutorial
on Topology Optimization in Ansys Discovery
and we hope that you found it helpful.
Thank you and good luck.